2013 will be a bad year to die.

121 posts in this topic

Unless there is a deal, the estate tax will revert to 55% over a $1M exemption of assets on Jan 1, 2012. That is a huge tax and it is not that difficult for an individual to accumulate $1M when you add in a paid off house, cars, and 401k.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Unless there is a deal, the estate tax will revert to 55% over a $1M exemption of assets on Jan 1, 2012. That is a huge tax and it is not that difficult for an individual to accumulate $1M when you add in a paid off house, cars, and 401k.

I reject the whole idea of this tax anyway and would get rid of it.

Actually every year is a bad year to die.

It is more accurate to say.....next year will be a bad year for the family of someone who dies.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

put things in other people's names prior to death... houses, property etc... put cash into precious metals... even better you can skip a generation and leave money to your grandchildren and have it be tax free.

or hell... simply take cash out and put it in a safe deposit box.

you really think the wealthy let this shiat exist without having a way around it?

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Proponents of the death tax say that it "helps" rich families not turn into a dynasty. And it keeps trust fund kids from being lazy.

Let's say a man accumlates $3M in assets and decides to retire at 55. If he exhausts all of his assets over the next 30 years he will live on $100k or so per year which is a nice standard of living if you aren't putting 4 kids through med school.

But if he gets hit by a bus at age 55.01 he owes the government $1M potentially next year for the right to spread his assets to his family. And if he owns a small business or farm his estate may have to dissolve the company business just to pay the tax bill.

If someone wants to fix the step up rule that would make more sense.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

put things in other people's names prior to death... houses, property etc... put cash into precious metals... even better you can skip a generation and leave money to your grandchildren and have it be tax free.

or hell... simply take cash out and put it in a safe deposit box.

you really think the wealthy let this shiat exist without having a way around it?

Well there is a gift tax which is used so people can't do that. If you put a house in someone elses name you are taxed.

I don't think grandchildren exempt an estate from estate tax.

And precious metals are assets too unless you are talking about pure tax fraud. But if a man has $3M of assets, a big portion of that will be things that you can't simply turn into cash. Houses, business, equities with large unrealized gains.

I think the smart way to do it is to do it through a public company somehow but i would need a really good accountant

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Even before, people inheriting assets that are sold post-mortem or are straight cash assets had to claim it as income on income taxes, and the .gov got a huge chunk of it even with estate tax laws... This isn't just a bad thing post-fiscal cliff... Death taxes have always been BS.